Papa John's starts pulling founder's image from marketing

Papa John's founder resigns as chairman after apologizing for racial slur More

Cary Erickson
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14 July, 2018, 01:29

Papa John's founder John Schnatter is no longer board chairman after using a racial slur, but his image is still part of the pizza chain's logo and he remains the company's largest shareholder. It's not, of course.

Schnatter also reflected on his childhood in IN while on the call and said people in the Hoosier State used to kill African Americans by dragging them from the back of vehicles.

To say things have not been going well for Papa John's seems like an understatement.

The Miami Marlins, Kansas City Royals, Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays and Seattle Mariners also announced Thursday they were going to suspend their relationships with Papa John's. During the call, Schnatter was asked how he would separate himself from racist groups online. The brand had formally been the official pizza of the National Football League but came to a "mutual decision" to end that relationship after Schnatter blamed slowed sales on player protests. It's just that this one doesn't make any sense. Not only is he featured in many TV commercials, but his face is emblazoned on pizza boxes and at the center of the logo. Are the Seattle Mariners going to need a new vehicle sponsorship because Henry Ford was buddy-buddy with Hitler? A Papa John's spokesman confirmed the story to Ad Age, without sharing further details.

According to the Washington Post, the Nationals were the latest team to do so, releasing a statement on Friday saying they "do not condone discrimination of any kind", and have suspended their partnership with the pizza chain, adding that the team "remain [s] supportive of our local operators who have been fantastic partners for more than eleven years".

Tropical Storm Chris Reaches Hurricane StrengthThe storm, though, is still expected to send swells on the North Carolina coast as well as the mid-Atlantic, the network said. Hurricane Chris is expected to make landfall on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula late on July 5 as a post-tropical depression.

The steps here are supposed to be: 1.

Schnatter had apologized and said he would resign as chairman after Forbes reported that he used the N-word during a media training session. But that's largely not how it happened this week, which is incredibly odd.

Schnatter has always been the face of the brand, and Papa John's has acknowledged in regulatory filings that its business could be hurt if Schnatter's reputation was damaged. Maybe it's just a confluence of the ineptitude of multiple big business interests, leaving room to wonder once again how some people have managed to get ahead as far as they have in this world, like the pizza-faking racist who's now out of a job.